Loving Miss Daisy

Our sweet, sweet Daisy is still with us! 4 months this week. What a ride it's been.

I haven't posted in a long time - we had our hands quite full with puppies for quite awhile. Shannon did an excellent job of taking care of them in her home. All were adopted to wonderful homes and that makes us so very happy!

Since then, we've been working hard on her social skills. I've learned over time what makes her tick, which makes it a bit easier to correct. I'm still learning myself, but not as afraid to try things with her as I was in the beginning. (I've always had cute little puppies to foster until Miss Daisy entered my life.)

I call her 98% perfect, 2% crazy Daisy!

She one of the most loyal and loving dogs I've ever met. I've learned so much about Daisy - she LOVES trail walking. A fetch foster, Kristin, watched her while our family went on vacation and opened her eyes to trail walking. She loves walking on leash and almost prefers it to being on a tie-out. She has learned how to walk with a prong collar and we are now in a training class learning to use a correction collar. She walks and listens beautifully on all methods. She loves to snuggle, she loves to play with my dogs, she loves treats and your full attention. She's simply amazing! That's the 98%.

That 2% doesn't show it's head as much as it did, but it's does come out occasionally. Daisy still has a bit of reactivity... Most times are very predictable - she doesn't like surprises, like people/dogs coming up unexpectedly or too fast. In the beginning, she was fearful of kids and other dogs. Over the past couple weeks and months she has become much more accepting of of the dogs ... but with slow intros. She is wonderful with my 2 dogs and even got along great with a 6 pound hairless Chihuahua over the past weekend. As for kids, I don't have small kids around any longer and haven't been around any to "test" her for quite awhile. I would alway feel more comfortable with Daisy on leash and under supervision around strangers/kids at first until she feels they are not a threat. We do have 3 teenagers and she's wonderful with our girls... their friends are another story. She tends to get excited when they first come through the door, I keep her on a leash so that she can not get too close. She is getting better at calming down quickly and that's an improvement. We are also working on Place command.

So, I'm looking for a UNICORN for my beautiful girl. You've got to be out there somewhere right??? We are on our 5th application - still trying to find the perfect match. I'd like to find someone that is an Experienced Dog owner and/or willing to work with her and have patience to continue working on that 2% reactivity. I'm also looking for someone that doesn't have small kids. A calm environment would be perfect for her. She can be left alone uncreated, doesn't chew on things, she's actually a bit of a hoarder. She's perfectly potty trained and is perfect on leash. She is an amazing dog that is ready to give you all the love she has to offer. She's calm, sweet, smart, beautiful & loyal. Are you her person?

The pups turned 5 weeks yesterday! This is a snippet of the happy crew outside with Daisy last night. We wouldn't dare show the "horror movie" of the behind the scenes amount of poo that 5 week olds can do! OMG, Shannon is a saint! The pups are growing every day, they are fun loving and getting socialized very well. Daisy is also becoming her own confident girl without being around the pups constantly. She's a work in progress - she's got a ways to go, but she's come so far!! Proud, proud, PROUD of her!!

And just a PSA (Fetch didn't tell me to plug them) - if any one is ever interested in Fostering, Fetch Rescue can always use a hand. If you'd like to adopt a rescue... your awesome! Make sure to get your application in. There is a process to adopting and it can take time to approve.

Man, what can I say about this girl. Daisy has come so far! She was shy and fearful when we first met. It took about 4 days for me to get a single wag out of her that first week. I literally stayed with her day and night leading up to her pups being born. Shannon would come as much as she could so that we could both gain her trust. Over time, she was very comfortable with both of us.

We've kinda been though a lot together - gaining trust, her final weeks of pregnancy, the birth of her pups, feedings, photo shoots, weening and now she's working on trusting other humans & dogs, learning how to play with our dogs and toys! She's also starting to work on the basics like sit and come. She's got a ways to go yet, but she's come so far!

I'm starting to prepare myself for letting her go. I usually have a clear split in my brain when I foster. "This is not my dog, I'm just helping to get them to where they needs to go." That's it. .... yeah right! Logically I know this is true. But... I also have a big heart that tends to love too much. When we took Daisy on, I wasn't thinking so much about her... I was thinking about helping her with the process of having her puppies. However, she's been such a work in progress this entire time that it's really hard not to fall in love with her and all she's accomplished. My main goal now is to find the most perfect match she could ever imagine. The Fetch team is amazing when finding matches. I don't know how they do it, but every time I've had a foster, they've found fabulous matches. I'm confident we will find someone to give her the best life. (I'm not crying... you are!)

My friends all assumed I'd be keeping Miss Daisy - and boy do I wish I could. It's not meant to be though. I've got my pups Jovi & Lambeau (who have been rockstars in dealing with Daisy) They've rolled with all the punches that Daisy has dealt over the last 7 weeks. As much as I love Daisy, she's not a great match with Jovi & Lami. She likes to hog attention away from the other two loves of my life. They are totally fine together, but I think Daisy would be better suited in a quieter environment. Hopefully her new family will send lots of updates and photos.

We've got her vet appointment this Friday and if everything checks out, she will be up for adoption shortly. I'm not thinking that she will get adopted right away, but you never know. She is pretty darn awesome! Could it be you? Are you Daisy's match?

It was about 1am on Mother's Day when I went down to check on Daisy and the pups. Earlier in the day Daisy basically kicked off the puppies - the puppies have freshly grown, sharp little teeth. Daisy decided it was too much to take so she stopped being able to feed them. We started feeding them blended puppy food with milk replacement added.

I was worried the pups weren't eating enough so I went to check on everyone about 1am. I came downstairs to find Daisy really sick! She threw up all over the basement to the point where I was in contact with the emergency vet. I eventually had to take her into the ER. Meanwhile, I was messaging Shannon and our foster partners. Luckily Shannon woke up and saw my panicked messages. Without hesitation she came to be with the pups and feed them while I took Daisy.

Daisy went through a bunch of tests that ultimately came up clear! Whew!!! They don't really know why she got so sick. We wondered if it was because when she stopped feeding the pups she got soooo engorged that it threw her off a bit?? Not sure. To add insult to injury - the vet gave her medication to help her control her nausea. It immediately set off an allergic reaction! It was scary. Benadryl helped fairly quickly and they eventually sent us home around 5:30am. She was 100% fine within 24 hours.

While that was going on... Shannon - the Saint that she is, was helping to clean up after Daisy. While doing so, she texted me "I think something's wrong, your basement is flooding!". I told her to wake my husband. So by 3am both of them were downstairs moving furniture, sucking water, pulling up carpet. Om gosh!!! Such a mess!! Our sump pump failed!!!!

Mother's Day.... Our finished basement was not in good shape. With fans blowing and lots of chaos, we were worried about the pups staying warm enough. Thankfully Daisy had just weened the pups so we made the decision to move the pups to Shannons house! Daisy stayed with me.

Puppies & Daisy actually have been thriving in their separate environments. Shannon has a fantastic set up for the pups. Keeping them warm and fed. It's been trial and error during week 4 of when to feed, how much to feed... Shannon had a lot of sleepless nights but heading into week 5 now, we are in a groove. Daisy & I stop over multiple times a day to help with feedings and to play. It's truly a team effort!

Daisy's Puppies continue to grow and are ridiculously adorable! One of our sponsors got to name the litter "In light of the news that the show Brooklyn 99 is being cancelled, we've decided we'd like to help those characters live on. It's a great show with a lot of personality, loyalty, and laughs, just like puppies. Plus, we feel like all these dogs would be great protectors of the people, like the detectives in the show."

Shannon, my daughter Maddy and I had a photo shoot with the puppies - it was a lot of fun with a tad of chaos. A couple behind the scenes photos too. They are 3 weeks old here. (click on the first photo to see the rest.)

We love Daisy! She's beautiful and sweet and such a fantastic Mama! She knew exactly what to do during birth. She cleaned the puppies and made sure her spot in the pool was clean, she got the pups snuggled right away and was really good about knowing where all of them were.

We only had her for about 2 weeks before the puppies were born. She was quite pregnant near the end. She showed Shannon and I nothing but her sweet side. However, she was a little growly towards my dogs, people out walking, anything that would get a little too close for her comfort. When we were in for her x-ray to see how many pups were inside, while the vet was trying to get her on the xray table, she tried to bite him. (If I were as big as her and someone tried to pick me up and flip me over, I might have done the same thing). We were hoping this was part of her being uncomfortable at the end of her pregnancy... and also partly due to being in a new environment. So much NEW!

Once the pups were born, she turned up her protective mode. She will only really let Shannon, myself and my husband come into the pen. She gets growly and barks towards anyone else in the room. So, we've dealt with this a few ways. My dogs go straight outside, no one gets close to the pen. Same thing for my teenagers... no eye contact... just keep moving.

2 weeks into having the pups here she's finally starting to relax a bit. She is still pretty protective, but we've shown her over and over again that we are not going to harm the pups and we always bring them back if we take one out. She's gotten much better with my dogs outside and upstairs. She still doesn't want them anywhere near her area in the lower level. She's much better with my teens upstairs and only a bit leary downstairs. She's better at controlling her barking outdoors when strange people/dogs walk by.

We are still hoping that she's just in protective mode and that once the pups are big enough, she will get back to being her awesome self around others all the time. I do think she's got a ways to go on some basic behavior issues and I'm hopeful that she'll get there. Time will help.

She's a wonderful dog. I just love her. My goal is to find her the most perfect home that will fit her needs. She deserves the very best.

I am so sorry that it's taken this long to catch up.... but it's literally like having a newborn in the house.... x5!!!!!

So here we go!

About 6 hours after our maternity photo shoot I could tell something was up. Daisy was panting and pacing a bit. About 10pm or so that night I thought, well... maybe this first stage will take awhile so I told Shannon I would call her if anything changed. About 11pm I had to call her and tell her it was GO TIME!!! We got Daisy to the pool and saw that she was actively having contractions. 1am the first pup was born!!! We call him RED for now because he's got a little red collar on. Daisy did a great job cleaning him up. Shannon was cool as a cucumber delivering the pups... I on the other hand saw placenta for the first time.... OMG, yep... I didn't barf, but wowza! Checking that off the list of things I've seen in my life! Moving on.

Last pup was born here about 10:30am - but we knew she had more pups yet to come. An hour went by, then 2... by the 2.5 hour mark, we were starting to get concerned. Called VES (our Go to Emergency Vet) We knew we couldn't go over 4 hours... Daisy was tired from pushing, the clock was ticking... our awesome foster partners gave us the green light to take her to the Emergency room. We managed to get Daisy into the back our our SUV, packaged up all of her puppies in a laundry basket and away we went. They gave us our own room and after an examination, it was decided that she was too tired to push and needed a C-section. Shannon and I stayed with the puppies. Daisy did amazing!

We ended up with 6 puppies - one of which Shannon brought back to life (Orange collar). She was the smallest of the bunch. She had a hard time breathing at first. Shannon did CPR, rubbed her vigorously and got that little stinker to survive. Sadly, it was only for a few days. We knew she turned a corner a few days in, she was much weaker than the rest... she would eat, but not much. That last night with her was fairly rough. I slept right next to the pool that night, waking up every 20 mins to rub her, keep her warm, try to get her to eat. By 7am... she was gone. I did CPR and could hear her lungs rattling... I think she gave her best shot at being here, but it wasn't meant to be.

Now with 5 healthy strong pups... we were on a 24/7 watch for that first week. Not much sleeping happened for us humans, but a lot of other awesome things did for the pups! We weighed them twice a day to make sure everyone was gaining weight. They scared us a bit around day 4 or 5 ... some were gaining more than others. Some lost a little... we called VES again to make sure we were doing everything correctly. They reassured us that we were doing great! Just like human babies, weight goes up and down a bit till it evens out. They could move around the pool a little by pushing their back legs. We'd help them get to Daisy to eat. They loved sleeping under the heat lamp. Daisy is an amazing Mom!!! She's doing everything that she's supposed to do for her pups! Including.... being territorial. More on that later.

Week 2! So much can happen in 2 WEEKS! Oh my gosh... we got fuzz on our ears and faces this week, we are using all 4 legs to scoot around, our tails start wagging when we eat our noses sniff to find mama. It's truly amazing to watch how fast they grow!! Most of their eyes are still closed at this point. Red had 1 eye starting to open at the end of week 2.

At the end of week 2, each pup was given the first round of dewormer. That was fun... no, not really. The pups hated it only ever eaten from Daisy. Shannon did a good job of getting them to eventually taking the syringe. We did this at 9pm... by 1am.... I was up with cranky puppies. Next time, we will do this in the morning. Live and Learn!!

We are so proud of Daisy and her pups! They are an amazing bunch and can't wait to see where the next few weeks take us. Already this week... the start of the 3rd week, we are seeing them lift themselves up on all fours! I think everyone has their eyes open at least a tiny bit. I don't think they can really see yet, but man they are CUTE!!!!!

Photos are from BIRTH DAY!! April 19th

Stay tuned, we'll try to update more often now that things are calming down a tad.

Fun with Miss Daisy! She's keeping us on our toes the last few days. She's gotten so big! She's got to be close. All signs are pointing to her having the pups soon. Shannon and I a excited and a tiny bit nervous. Hoping all goes well with both Daisy and her pups. She's such a beautiful girl. I know she's about to face a really long and not so fun hours/days ahead, but she's strong. She'll be a champ I'm sure.

Lucky for us, this girl LOVES the snow!! She looks like she's doubled in size in the past week, but she still has some get up and GO when she's out in the snow. In my uneducated eye... I'm guessing these pups will be here in the next 5 days or less.... poor girl is HUGE!!

Today we chilled out and snuggled while making this video. Enjoy our journey so far...

I thought it would be our luck today that miss Daisy would have those pups, she was kinda restless today, up more than yesterday, I swear that belly doubled in size overnight... but I think it was just gas. Haha!!

Shannon got to spend some awesome one-on-one time with her tonight. Nice walks watching the traffic go by. She's still so fascinated by moving things! She got lots of cuddles from her bestie Shannon!! Lucky girl!

Tonight, we decided to get a little crazy around here and let all 3 dogs hang out together upstairs. We've had Daisy separated for the most part this last week. Didn't want to overwhelm her. We've had short spurts where they've been able to meet and sniff... but Daisy has been a bit growly. But tonight she seemed like she was more comfortable so we let her upstairs to hang out. She's been doing GREAT. Now growling. Everyone's just chewing on rawhide and chilling out.

Well.... we decided it was time to try and wash Mama Daisy... she just felt like she could use a good bath. I don't have an easy place to wash her here so we took her to Pet Supply Plus. They were nice enough to let us have the room to ourselves. Being our first time trying to wash her, we were pretty cautious of how she might react. If you've been there, they have a low tub and a high tub. The low tub is still a foot off the ground so Daisy would have to step up to get in it. She wasn't having it. She wasn't growly, but she definitely put the breaks on. Shannon ran out to find some treats to help the situation. Daisy is a SMART girl... she made her mind up that she wasn't getting in. So we decided to bring the hose to her. We probably broke all the rules, washed her right in the middle of the room! She was not too sure at first, but once we got going... I think she liked it!! Not sure if she's ever had a bath before, but we think she was digging it!!

Daisy got to visit the pregnancy vet today! She did great. She was very fearful of the car ride. I hope she didn't think I was dropping her off somewhere new again. Our vet was very sweet with her. Heart & Lungs sound great. She went from 61 lbs a couple weeks ago to weighing in at 81 pounds today!! We found out that this probably isn't her first litter and that she's probably more like a year or two old instead of 11 months. Poor girl has been through a lot. We also had an X-ray done to see how many pups were in there an how far along she is. We are sworn to secrecy on the actual number we saw.... but lets just say.... I almost fainted in the vets office .... and Shannon and I will need to quit our day jobs to man the amount of sweet chaos that is about to come in the next week or so.

Our next fostering adventure begins!! Shannon & I are co-fostering beautiful miss Daisy. She came from down south where she and her husband Bo were not treated very well. Thankfully they were able to get out of their situation and into safe temporary foster homes. Today Daisy finally made it up here to Verona!! (Bo will come at a later date). She is due with puppies in the next week or so!!! This girl is gorgeous!! The pictures really don't do her justice. She's sweet and shy. Hopefully in the weeks to come, she will open up to us. We are so excited to have her here in a warm safe place. Whats your guess? How many pups do you think she'll have? (hint: she's about 1.5 feet wide, 61lbs)

DAISY UPDATE : Omgooooooosh!!! She is the coolest pup ever!! Her tail is still somewhat tucked under at all times, but she's doing great at looking at me, coming to my side, taking food. You can tell she is a bit nervous and probably overwhelmed. She slept well last night and ate a full bowl of food and drank all her water. Took her out this morning. She was nervous at first, so I brought her back in. She ate another bowl of food and a lot of water. We went back out and walked around. She's a slow mover!! I'm wondering if she was in a fenced area or something where she couldn't see people, cars, moving things??? She is completely sucked into watching anything that moves. We watched a dog go by (Thanks Tucker! Christi, Jon) and she did great. However, a lady was running towards us and she started to growl a little bit. After that she did both 1 & 2!!!! YAYAYA!!! We came inside, she checked out the whole man cave again and then went back to her bed. I'm excited to see that tail wag at some point. Her eyes are still so sad and worried... it's going to be awesome when she comes around.

After a very long day of travel that started by car in Alabama and ended by plane in Madison (with a small ride to Verona) Ms. Daisy has arrived. She is very shy and very pregnant but Holly Benzine and I are happy to report that she ate a little, drank a little, then promptly found a cozy spot to rest her head and fell right to sleep. She is so beautiful and so sweet. We will keep you posted on her progress!!

Daisy and her husband Bo lived down south, outside with not much love or attention. They were abused during that time, the cops were called, the landlord was called .. eventually the dogs were removed and have been in temporary foster care. Meanwhile, months ago, Shannon and I thought it would be a cool experience to foster a pregnant pup if the chance ever came up. We've been on a list with Fetch Rescue if thesituation ever occurred ... so we got an email last week asking if anyone was available to help this beautiful girl. We talked it over and decided to go for it! (we kind of said yes before the husbands were on board... it's one of those, ask for forgiveness later type of deals.) :) Daisy is a week or so away from having her first and only litter of pups so she got a quick ride up here over the weekend. The Amazing volunteers (I don't even know how many have been involved... so MANY!!) from fosters to drivers to pilots to coordinators... you name it, this girl was lucky enough to have all these amazing people help her out to get to Wisconsin. She's now here in her foster home sleeping comfortably while waiting for her pups to arrive. We will be keeping a journal here of our adventures with her and her pups until they are all adopted.